Yours Truly ‘Is This What I Look Like?’
‘We spent that whole album telling people everything was going to be alright but the world had clearly taken a turn’ Mikaila Delgado, vocalist of Sydney pop punk band Yours Truly states about the bands debut album ‘Self Care’. ‘Now we just want to write the songs we want to write. Let’s not be afraid. Let’s just be the best band we possibly can’
The best band they can be is the upcoming 7 track EP Is That What I Look Like?
While the debut album was upbeat and a powerful message of hope and taking on the world, this album deals with the conflicting emotions and experiences of being a young band taking on the cut throat business of music, the soaring star of their brand with forced isolation, the togetherness of the band while external relationships disintegrated.
The bands music still has that cherry flavoured pop punk of Saturday nights out with your friends, yet now explores different worlds through the lyrical context. These worlds allow the band to stretch into different musical boundaries and Delgado’s lyrics push her vocally with nuance and delivery.
You can hear the emotional subtleties on opening track Walk Over My Grave. It is a fast energy pop punk song as Delgado tells a story of loss which ends in a powerful slam dunk of guitars to accentuate the lyrics.
Careless Kind has a delightful flow in the music which has an early 2000’s vibe with the band locked in while If You’re Drowning (I’ll Hold My Breath) is a tale of doing anything for your loved one with the lyrics to match the devoted sentiment.
Guests such Drew York features on the bombastic Bruises while You Me At Six’s John Francheshci lends his talents to Hallucinate which is arguably the bands heaviest song to date with sublime change ups in sound throughout.
Finishing with Lights On, with its 80’s disco pop beat underneath, is the culmination of the story Delgado has been telling with the chorus of ‘Is this what I look with the lights on?’ Which is a question equally valid to a lover, your own self esteem or the stage lights as the band become bigger yet more isolated from the real world.
Yours Truly wanted to be the best band they can be. This meant writing what they wanted, musically and lyrically. This emotional exposure of their self esteem and health issues has created an EP that will have their fans excited to see them again and for what’s next musically.
It will also elevate them further into the stage lights and from what I can digest from this EP, to answer what Yours Truly look like is band that’s about to explode across the world.
EP Review By Iain McCallum
